Distance Lanlording, gentrification & city ordnances

[M Marie M.]

The basics- I live in DC, I have a rental in Ocala, FL sorta managed by my parents also in that city. When I bought the place the house to the left of it was a vacant tear down shack filled with junk, the house to the right was unfinished and vacant for years and years. This month I have received notices from the city about an ordinance violation that cite the ordinance but fail to mention the exact violation. The 1st notice was just to me, the second, the tenants got a copy and I had to spend time calming down the wife (my tenant) because the city cites the whole ordinance and she was going on and on about graffiti and vines, which I knew wasn't the problem.

I had contacted the tenants after talking with the city the 1st time I received a notice. It appears one of their neighbors complained about their junky yard.  I suspect the C- neighborhood I bought into in the late 00s is growing up a grade and kinda gentrifying, if there really is such a thing in Ocala.

I observed full on gentrification in my own neighborhood in DC and I suspect something similar is happening where my rental is. The two vacant houses that used to bookend my rental have been fixed up and occupied. My mom suspects the complaining neighbor is a guy who moved in recently. In my DC neighborhood, new people would complain and engage city services to better the neighborhood and old timers would complain about the new comers wanting to change everything. The new guy might be a harbinger of things to come.

On the plus side. Hey my property value is going up! Yay. However it is a D+ looking property in a B-/C+ neighborhood and I'd have to fix it up to get full retail price. It's in walking/biking distance (if it isn't 90F+) to a A class neighborhood. There are plenty of amenities (library, grocery, parks, etc) within a short drive or walk.

My problem is the city is now threatening fines. My other problem is the husband (I tend to talk to the wife) and his junk and his landscaping equipment. I'm in the middle of dealing with another property I bought in Baltimore and some family in-law problems. If it weren't for those other distractions, I would look into removing the tenants and fixing and flipping it. If I remove them now, I would need to fix up the house and I don't have time to go down to Florida do that right now. I know my tenants want to buy the house, but I'm having doubts they would be able to afford it and maintaining it so they won't get in trouble and the timing is bad for all of us.

Warning or lesson for long distance landlords, unless you're going by the property often you may be slow to pick up on neighborhood change. Also there is little you can do about city ordinance violations from several states away, short of asking your tenant to fix it.